Unofficial Results for Dirt Blowing (partial)

Disclaimer- Unofficial Results for Dirt Blowing. 

First round of Open 

Unofficial Second round of Open. I missed half of the Open runs as we were at the Nursery field for half of the day. Tough, windy and twitchy range ewes. We sat in Kathleen's van when we did watch Open as the wind picked up and it got chilly. I love the heated seats in her van.  Ruben ran last today and he was quiet and smooth. A real pleasure of a run to watch and a good way to end the day.

Friday Nursery- First Round.

Suzy (again) laid down a smoking run. She handled the sheep with ease and calmness. The ewes would come the steep hill at a dead run and looking to bolt. Then you had to push them up the hill for the drive and they wanted to race up the hill.

Sonia and Lee also had nice quiet runs. I like Sonia's pup...breeding was Stephanie/Mike Goracke from Texas and Angie Coker-Sells? Very nice dog and I mentioned to Sonia she needed to put that pup in my truck, but she scurried off at a high rate of speed! I was very impressed with this pup and watch out!

Nursery - Second Round.

Jude went out much better today and only required three redirects. He was a lot more confident. He came in flat but lifted the sheep nicely and came down the hill. He was offline and we tried to ease them back online but I was not being too hard on him and we got them online after the fetch. Very smart and tidy turn and then up to the first panel. We slid short then went to the right, broke the plane and slipped on the far side of the panel and then started the crossdrive. A wee bit offline but he gave his best effort and at the last bit on the crossdrive, we snuck low. He was on his way to the pen with a tight line but we timed out. We needed about 3 more seconds and we would have gotten the drive points. Overall, I was very impressed that he did as well as he did, a vast improvement from the day before.

Considering I only got him on Sunday and got a few short work, then I ran him at a trial, I was happy with him. He tried his hardest for me and did everything I asked of him. It was very windy and the wind was blowing the commands away but he listened well.

Kathleen and Josh are an upcoming dynamic team. He is a two year old Kelpie that she got at eleven weeks old and she has taken her time in making this upcoming dog a real star. You can tell she has put a lot of time on him on his foundation and it shows.

He cast out wide,  then came in a wee flat (like Jude) and had a nice lift. Most of the dogs had issues in the same spot so there was something that drew them in there. Only one dog had a nice deep lift and it was Sonia's young pup. Josh had a wee wobble on his fetch but hit the fetch panels dead on and his turn was tight at the post. His first leg was pretty smooth, aside from a little drift halfway up but he tucked them in and got his first panel. His crossdrive was a little off but not much, maybe a little bit high and he marched them through the cross panel. A little wide turn but he tucked them back in quickly for a tight line to the pen. At the pen, the ewes thought about giving him some attitude but he stood his ground. They were slowly been eased in but the buzzer went off. A few seconds more and he would have had it.

Sonia and Kate had a near perfect run and made it look easy. Suzy and Bryn had a nice run and also made it look easy. Both were very quiet in their methods and the sheep were calm. The range ewes wanted to break to the exhaust so your dog had to really cover that side.

Jude did an excellent job on that and when all four faced him, he stood his ground and as I told him to walk up, he did with confidence and they turned. Some dogs could not hold and as a result, the sheep ran to the exhaust. These sheep gave no mercy.  Jude's score did not reflect the amount of try and work he did on his run, although his lines were not perfect, his try and grit were 100%. Sometimes you need to forget about the lines and make the run a success for the dog. It will pay off as the next time, he will be easier to get closer to the lines and his confidence today, went up 1000% as he actually won in his mind as he "took" control of his sheep and did as I asked. The difference in today's run and yesterday's run was huge and in Jude's mind, he felt like he was a winner and in my mind, he was a winner.

Open- Second round. 

Tomorrow, I run Maid and Nan. The Jude for the third round of Nursery and Rainey in PN.

The view as you drive in to the Open area. See the large brown patch of hill above the trailers? That is similar to  PN field. You are at the bottom part and your dog goes up about 1/4 of the way of the brown part.

So far a great but tough trial. Handler's dinner was tonight and we had steak, baked potatoes, salad, carrot cake and lots of other goodies. This is one awesome trial. The setout crews have been fabulous.  Consider this a top rated, tough, challenging trial. I appreciate it a lot that Sue Wessels and company put it on. The Open Judge is Charlie Torre and the PN/Nursery Judge is Karen Mahoney. I took pictures and will do a photo post later this week.